New woodland boosts army training and flood defences
15 Apr 2014 03:16 PM
120 hectares of new
woodland at a Yorkshire training area will improve soldiers' experience
while reducing flood risk for local residents.
The Defence Infrastructure
Organisation (DIO) worked with the Forestry
Commission and the Woodland
Trust to deliver the woodland at Catterick Training Area, which will
provide further area for our armed forces to develop skills in using wooded
areas as cover in battle.
The woodland also meets best
practice guidelines set out by the Forestry Commission and Defra, and is part
of Woodlands for Water
(WfW), an initiative to enhance England’s water
environment.
Jeremy
Kalkowski, DIO’s head forester for the north eastern UK,
said:
DIO supports our armed
forces by providing what they need to live, work and train. Our
cross-organisational working approach means that not only are we providing an
improved facility for military training, but there are huge benefits to the
people and communities around Catterick, as well as for the biodiversity and
environment of the area.
WfW was established by the
Forestry Commission and the Environment
Agency to improve the quality of rivers and help against the causes of
downstream flooding in England.
Planting on steep hillsides at
Catterick reduces ground water flowing into the River Swale. In the last few
years, large areas within the north east of England have been subject to
flooding. It is hoped that the new woodland will help reduce the effects of
flooding in the area.
Tenant farmers on Ministry of
Defence (MOD) land at Catterick were able to apply for the Forestry
Commission’s grant scheme, which covered their costs for planting 80
hectares of trees.
Jeremy Dick, the local woodland
officer for the Forestry Commission, said:
The commission established the
Woodlands for Water initiative with the Environment Agency in 2010. It’s
great to see this project come to fruition where the scale and location of
planting means reducing the flood risk.
120 hectares is a really good
contribution towards our national woodland creation target.
The remaining 40 hectares are
also being funded by WfW and the Woodland Trust. This means that no
costs were incurred on the defence budget for the training
ground.
Woodland Trust partnership
manager Helen Chesshire said:
We are delighted to continue our
partnership with DIO and create new native woodland across
the MOD estate for both the benefit of the environment and the armed
forces.
In addition to the planting at
Catterick our partnership has created over 380 hectares of new native woodland
at 6 other MOD sites, with a further 100 hectares to be planted in
the autumn at 3 more sites.
The 120 hectare planting at
Catterick is part of a wider woodland creation drive on the MOD’s
training estate. Wherever possible, DIO seeks to use public funds to
develop projects that meet the needs of multiple organisations, departments and
local communities.